NASCAR’S Chase Elliott goes for second straight title in Phoenix. How did he get here?
Chase Elliott has been in front of a camera more than ever this year, which isn’t surprising considering he’s NASCAR’s three-time most popular driver and the defending Cup Series champion. Yet the title race Elliott won was held a year ago, and his public visibility has exploded this fall, reaching eyes beyond those in the NASCAR world.
“The right opportunities came up at the right time,” Elliott said, referencing a Chevrolet commercial that aired during the NFL’s season opener. “I don’t know if it’s me trying harder.”
That September game between the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers averaged 26 million total viewers across NBC platforms, and Elliott’s face appeared on screen in the spot sometime after the first touchdown. A few days earlier, he was a guest on ESPN’s College GameDay live from Romare Bearden Park for a segment before Georgia played Clemson in Charlotte. Last Sunday, he was spotted in the stands watching Game 5 of the World Series and cheering on his beloved Braves, a few hours after earning a return spot in NASCAR’s championship race. (He said that he watched the final game of the series from home.) The 25-year-old driver is an avid sports fan, not just a competitor, and those appearances have been a natural crossover.
But the spotlight this year has been bigger and brighter, and Elliott said it’s a “little bit of both” in terms of comfort and newness with navigating the appearances.
“There are parts of it that I do well, and there are parts where — Like trying to be an actor. I’m not very good at acting,” he said.
Elliott is the self-deprecating type, so that might not be entirely true. It also probably doesn’t matter whether he can act, since Elliott’s fans rally around him most when he’s entirely himself. A YouTube channel he launched in the summer is nearing 10,000 subscribers. The behind-the-scenes views provide more (filtered) looks at his life for avid fans, but Elliott’s most memorable lines this season have been unedited and off-the-cuff.
He wished Kevin Harvick a “Merry Offseason and a Happy Christmas” in a post-race interview at Charlotte after Harvick wrecked himself out of the playoffs amid their on-track feud. The quote has since been monetized through apparel sales on Elliott’s website and hyped up among his hometown fans in Dawsonville, Georgia.
When Denny Hamlin took a shot at Elliott’s fan base at Martinsville, Elliott responded with sarcasm.
“It’s just Chase Elliott fans, man,” Hamlin said when asked about boos in his home state. “They don’t think straightly.”
Reacted Elliott: “I’m gonna lose so much sleep tonight,” he said. “Like, I might not sleep at all. That’s how concerned I am. My fans don’t care, either, by the way.”
Elliott said that he just tries to speak his mind in those situations.
“I try to be pretty simple. I’m not very smart, so I just try to keep it simple and straightforward,” he said.
Those around him think differently about his wit. Hendrick Motorsports team owner Rick Hendrick called Elliott “quick” and not just “sharp,” but “very, very, very sharp” when speaking with reporters earlier this week. Elliott’s crew chief, Alan Gustafson, said Friday that Elliott was the smartest and most cerebral driver he’s ever worked with.
“You can’t rattle him,” Hendrick said. “I’ve never seen him get rattled over anything. I think he’s poised for another championship here come Sunday.”
Chase Elliott, pride of Dawsonville
Elliott’s path to the cusp of his second NASCAR championship began in a small town an hour north of Atlanta. Unlike most top NASCAR drivers, Elliott still lives in his hometown rather than the Charlotte area, commuting weekly to the Hendrick Motorsports shop in Concord by flying himself in a small plane from Dawsonville’s Elliott Field Airport.
He earned his private pilot license in 2015, which was something that was as natural to him as staying in Dawsonville. His father, Bill Elliott, knows how to fly. Generations of his family have lived in Dawsonville, where Elliott is referred to by locals as the “finest young Christian boy.”
Despite their similar racing inclination, those same folks point out that Chase Elliott isn’t Bill’s clone. Gordon Pirkle, owner of the Dawsonville Pool Room restaurant, has witnessed both generations of Elliot success, and can recognize even the slightest of differences between the two, down to the way they speak.
“Bill, he was country as you ever found,” Pirkle said. “He talked country. But Chase, he kinda dressed his speech up.”
This deep connection to his roots — which came with a weighty NASCAR inheritance as the son of the 16-time Most Popular Driver — while navigating the modern racing landscape and media opportunities for a national audience has contributed in part to Elliott’s popularity. Combine his charisma with weekly on-track success and the young driver’s willingness to go toe-to-toe with the veterans, and NASCAR has a bona fide star. Elliott’s crossover appeal is hard to articulate, but it works like this:
While Gordon Pirkle’s son, Gordon Pirkle Jr., was being interviewed behind the Dawsonville Pool Room two weeks ago, a lost-looking man interrupted.
“Excuse me, do you know where I can buy a Chase Elliott hat?” he said, motioning to someone not visible. “She’s a fan.”
“She” is a fan, in the same way that Australian F1 driver and megawatt personality Daniel Ricciardo is a fan (and friend) of Elliott’s, in the same way that a friend of a friend who recently started following NASCAR picked Elliott as his favorite driver and now wears his Hooters merch. The fans come from all over.
Kyle Larson, Elliott’s teammate who’s also in the title fight with a series-topping nine wins this season, has developed his own band of loyal followers upon his NASCAR return, but he said he doesn’t think he, or anybody, stands a shot against Elliott for the Most Popular Driver vote.
“It’d be nice if they had a poll and I could at least see if I ran second or something,” Larson said with a smile. “Chase has got that wrapped up as long as he’s racing in our sport.”
Getting it done on the track
Larson pointed to Elliott’s family legacy, big brand sponsorship, his youth and sheer competitiveness as factors that contribute to the hype. Gustafson said that also contributes to the demands.
“There was a lot of pressure on him in general because he is so popular and the expectations are super, super high,” Gustafson said. “Winning the championship was amazing. It was a huge accomplishment for all of us, but even that kinda just pours nitrous on the expectations.”
Even Hamlin, who was critical of Elliott’s fans in his comments this week for their blind loyalty to a single driver rather than each situation, said that “it’s not (Elliott’s) fault” that the fans flock.
“He doesn’t ask for it,” Hamlin said. “Dale Jr. didn’t ask for the popularity he had back in the day. They both handle it really, really well. That’s a big, big weight to put on your shoulders, to have most of the NASCAR community rooting for you, because you’re always trying to make them proud.”
If last season was about meeting the moment for Elliott and his No. 9 Chevrolet team — with a clutch win at Martinsville and upset victory for the championship against three series veterans — this year has seen Elliott make his own moments. He defended himself upon sparring with drivers more than 10 years his senior. In perhaps the most defining incident this season, Elliott ran into Harvick in response to Harvick hitting Elliott’s left side at Bristol to set off the ensuing feud.
“I don’t care who he is or how long he’s been doing it,” Elliott said after that race. “I’m gonna stand up for myself and my team and we’ll go on down the road.”
Gustafson said that the situation demonstrated Elliott’s confidence. It also motivated his team.
“A lot of times that exterior influence can spark some energy in a team and ignite some unity and I feel like it did in our team,” he said. “Got some drive.”
But this weekend, the focus is on one thing for Elliott — not the fans nor the feuds — but being fast as he aims for his first win on an oval this year, and his second Cup championship. He said that focusing on the right things helps, which means not changing much. That’s how he operates. It’s gotten him this far.
“Best thing is to have a fast car,” Elliott said. “And if we do that, I think the rest will take care of itself.”
This story was originally published November 7, 2021 at 7:15 AM.
